I’ve been thinking a lot this week about a seemingly obvious fact: the pandemic is not over. Despite the fact that many of my vaccinated friends and I are tentatively stepping into one another’s homes and reveling in the simple joy of sitting at one another’s kitchen tables, despite the fact that I took my first hike without a mask on in over a year, despite the fact that my kids’ school says it will be fully open and in person in the fall--the pandemic is not over.
I also hope we carry this centering of precarity (which is crucially different than scarcity) with us in other ways: in how we engage housing, in how we engage mental health, in how we engage learning. But most of all, selfishly, I hope we can carry it in how we engage disability. There are many of us out there who are now without masks, but are not in the least bit well. Or are well on our own terms, but will continue to need support, visibility, and interdependent care. Let the mutual aid grow into a mutual flourishing, across all borders.
Thank you for naming this so clearly, Courtney. I have had great heartache over learning of people making plans for pleasure travel to countries where vaccine availability is limited or non-existent. Yes, travel by vaccinated people stimulates the economy. But there is also the need to be aware of this privilege to go about the world as if your new-found freedom is equally accessible to all. In a myriad of ways. xoS
My daughter is also one of many who cannot get the vaccine because her immune system overreacts to vaccines and destroys the platelets in her blood. She depends on the goodness of others to get vaccinated so that she can stay well.
I also hope we carry this centering of precarity (which is crucially different than scarcity) with us in other ways: in how we engage housing, in how we engage mental health, in how we engage learning. But most of all, selfishly, I hope we can carry it in how we engage disability. There are many of us out there who are now without masks, but are not in the least bit well. Or are well on our own terms, but will continue to need support, visibility, and interdependent care. Let the mutual aid grow into a mutual flourishing, across all borders.
Made donation for Covid Relief in India, thanks for the resources.
Thank you for naming this so clearly, Courtney. I have had great heartache over learning of people making plans for pleasure travel to countries where vaccine availability is limited or non-existent. Yes, travel by vaccinated people stimulates the economy. But there is also the need to be aware of this privilege to go about the world as if your new-found freedom is equally accessible to all. In a myriad of ways. xoS
My daughter is also one of many who cannot get the vaccine because her immune system overreacts to vaccines and destroys the platelets in her blood. She depends on the goodness of others to get vaccinated so that she can stay well.
What an incredibly beautiful reminder. Thank you.